BENEDICTION

UK, 2021, 137 minutes, Colour.

Jack Lowdon, Peter Capaldi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irvine, Ben Daniels, Kate Phillips, Julian Sands, Geraldine James, Gemma Jones, Anton Lesser, Calam Lynch, Lia Williams, Kellie Shirley, Suzanne Bertish, Joanna Bacon, Richard Goulding, Matthew Tennyson.

Directed by Terence Davies.

This review begins with a suggestion, not ordinarily made – that audiences intending to watch Benediction do some research, reading about the poet, Siegfried Sassoon, to fill in a lot of the background of the film. Ordinary advice would be the opposite but this film is a kind of impressionistic portrait of the poet, visual, verbal with his poetry, pieces of narrative, but with flashbacks and flashforwards.  The narrative is not the most important part, rather the portrait, the war experience and memories, the poetry are key.

Older audiences would be more at home in the early part of the 20^th century, the experience of World War I, emergence from war, the roaring 20s, especially in London society. There are references that audiences, 100 years later, may not be familiar with: Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring, sequences with the poet Edith Sitwell, references to the music of George Gershwin, the composer and performer, Ivor Novello (and a performance of his amusing ditty, “and her mother came to…”, dancing to Tea for Two, the Charleston, Oscar Wilde and his friend Robbie Ross…

This is very much a Terence Davies film, written and directed by him. He has been making some excellent films for almost 40 years but they are not to everyone’s taste. Too quiet for some, too precise for others, particularly delicate sensibility in presenting characters, their complexities, their struggles.

And, yet, there is quite some ferocity in this film. Siegfried Sassoon served for over two years in World War II, in the trenches, eventually taking a stance against what he thought was the mismanagement of the war, sent to an institution (fictionalised interestingly in Pat Barker’s novel and the film version, Regeneration). What the director does is to insert a considerable amount of war footage, soldiers, assemblies, parades, the fierce fighting, wounds and the mass dead lying in the mud. These are the images that haunt Sassoon throughout his life and permeate his poetry.

Jack Lowden gives a very strong performance, nuanced, as the young Sassoon. And Peter Capaldi appears as the older Sassoon (flashbacks/flashforwards). There is a strong array of British character actors in support, some of them more visibly older after decades in films, Geraldine James, Ben Daniels, Gemma Jones…

And, pervading the film, is Terence Davies’ gay sensibility, prominent in a number of his films, especially the autobiographical The Long Day Closes. The era in Benediction is immediate post-Oscar Wilde, Sassoon quoting ‘the love that does not speak its name’ to his doctor (Ben Daniels). And Sassoon’s prominent friend is Robbie Ross (Simon Russell Beale), Oscar Wilde’s friend and Catholic confidant. Sassoon came out, in the secretive way of the period, a number of affairs, including with Novello, Jeremy Irvine (and Terence Davies obviously dislikes, almost creating a caricature and accusing him of arrogance and pettiness).

Eventually, Siegfried Sassoon married and had a son. There is a wedding sequence and the support of his gay friends. But, into the future, there is tension with his wife, separation, the devotion of his son, even to his increasingly cranky and crabby father. This is illustrated by a visit from his former lover, Stephen, who 30 years later wants to apologise but is ousted from the house.

In a final sequence, in the 60s, Sassoon nearing 80, his son takes him to the West End to a performance of Leslie Bricusse-Anthony Newly’s Stop the World, I Want to Get Off (featuring the amusing ‘typically English’ song. We see Sassoon walk home, sitting on a park bench, remembering, transforming into his younger self, in uniform, sitting, sad, eventually weeping. (And one wonders whether Davies himself regrets that he did not live in the England of a century ago where he seems more at home.)

At the end of this experience, we might be wondering why the film could be called Benediction – ultimately, Sassoon did not seem to be blessed (although, for Catholic interest, he became a Catholic in his older age, instructed by the translator of the Bible into English, Msgr Ronald Knox). Perhaps it is a benediction to have lived, to have survived, and to be able to remember as well as regret.

1. The title? What benediction? For whom? Or not?
2. The work of Terence Davies, quiet, sensibility, the past, poets and artists, gay sensibility and stories?
3. The period, World War I, the front, the war footage? In the UK, rehabilitation centre? Homes, society, socials, art and poetry, theatre? Flashbacks, flashforwards, the 1960s, the house, the theatre, the London Park?
4. The range of music, opening with Stravinsky, Gershwin, Ivor Novello, Tea for Two, the Charleston, Stop the World…?
5. A portrait of Siegfried Sassoon, audience knowledge of him, his war career, protests, his poetry, his life, relationships, marriage, son, conversion to Catholicism? His poetry, as background, his recitation of the social, Wilfred Owen’s poem, Disabled, visualised at the end?
6. The extensive use of war footage, reminder of the impact of World War I, the soldiers, recruiting, training, the trenches, wounding, the dead lying en masse, rehabilitation? The insertion throughout the film? The influence of these memories on Sassoon, his life, his poetry?
7. The narrative in this context, relationships? The future, the marriage, in the church and his son, George, and his conversion, the question about Catholicism? The breaking of his marriage? His son caring for him, the conflicts, his going to the theatre, the song? Walking home, sitting on the park, the flashback to his younger self, uniform, weeping?
8. Sassoon, joining up, his younger brother, news of his death? His relationship with his mother, living with his mother, Novello visiting her, her concern about his relationships?
9. Enlisting, his war service, over two years, later going to the front, being wounded by the British soldier? His nightmares of the hospital, the man screaming in the night, the nurses, his being dead in the morning?
10. Protesting against the management of the war, his being call before the panel, the three and their attitudes, treatment of him, military superiority, sending him to the institution? His meeting with Dr Rivers, friendly and sympathetic, listening, treatment of mental issues, the confiding about the sexual orientation, confidentiality? Meeting Wilfred Owen, his poetry, the effect of disabled on Sassoon, their dancing together, the official condemning men dancing together? Owen recovering, sent to the front, being killed just before armistice? The continued memory?
11. After the war, Sassoon and his relationships, Glen Byam Shaw, the meeting with Novello, his recitation, Novello’s song – and her mother came too! The affair, the previous partners, Sassoon going to the theatre, not on the list, going up, the new partner, Novello’s attitude?
12. The relationship with Stephen, his position in society, meeting Hester, dancing the Charleston, later meeting with her, the church and watercolours, the attraction, his decision to marry, talking with his friends, the minister and the ceremony, the birth of the baby, his joy, later, the visit from Stephen and his rejection of him, ousting him, Hester making the tea? Her leaving? Leaving him with George, the living together, George caring for him, the arguments and his bitterness? Taking him to the theatre?
13. Robbie Ross, the past with Oscar Wilde, his place in society, his friends, the society women, making advances on Sassoon, his preferring cocoa! Lady Ottoline and the recitals? The meeting with Edith Sitwell and her recital? His later resentment about her Nobel award and his Queen’s poetry award?
14. The years passing, Sassoon’s attitude to music, the praise of Gershwin, Tea for Two, the meeting with Hester and the consequences?
15. The device of the flash forward, Sassoon looking in the mirror, his older self, in the church, the conversation about conversion, George and his not being spiritual? Why Catholicism?
16. The design of the flash forward with Stephen, ageing, the same scarf, his visiting Sassoon, wanting to reconcile, 30 years, his being ousted?
17. The finale, the visualising of Wilfred Owen’s poem and the legless man, disabled? Sassoon at the theatre, George leaving him, sitting on the park bench, going back to his past, in uniform, his weeping?